Mays Impacts

I love Blue Bell ice cream. When we lived out of state for a number of years, I remember it being a legitimate choice to consider having it shipped to us in dry ice rather than settling for Blue Bunny, or some other inferior northern brand. On one visit home to Texas, driving between Austin and Houston, we stopped at a barbecue place in Brenham. We asked if they could make us milk shakes out of Blue Bell. Barbecue places don’t make milk shakes. But on that day, for a displaced Texas family, that one did. And it was the highlight of our trip.

I also love baseball and Texas A&M, and you cannot think of the two of those together without thinking of our beautiful Blue Bell Park. The Kruse family has been a great friend to this university, and Blue Bell CEO Howard Kruse even spoke to my son personally when he was considering his college choices.

But today, in real time, Blue Bell is grappling with one of the biggest crises in its long history. The presence of listeria in food is not a new thing, and it is one of the risks a food creating and food handling business develops systems to guard against. Obviously, at some level, those systems have not been effective enough at Blue Bell, and that is true in multiple locations. And when people are harmed, any corporation can expect its motives to be questioned and probed.

But corporations do not have motives; people do. The people who run Blue Bell have built up tremendous goodwill over the years through the way they have run their business. Still, as news stories develop over weeks and months, light will be shone on the best and the worst of habits in the company, because that is what makes interesting news. The evidence that seems to point to slow moving calculations of effects will be criticized. Aggressive assumption of duties will be lauded.

Blue Bell’s overriding duty in this situation is to prevent harm from coming to people through the company’s products. That is why the decision to recall all Blue Bell products has been generally praised. It is a defensive decision, one that is designed to prevent harm at any cost. But this is not what companies like Blue Bell are normally designed to do.

Companies that produce ice cream are designed to maximize pleasure, not minimize harm. And companies that are designed to maximize pleasure run on calculations. Some companies are more utilitarian, calculating the greatest good for the greatest number, and these are often viewed as socially responsible. A stadium or theater venue that holds certain numbers of seats at a low price, or those that give back to their communities, fall into this category. Others only calculate the benefit for the company and its shareholders, generally with the goal to maximize profits. Even if they are involved in charitable giving, it is only as a means to protect the bottom line. But whether they are utilitarian or egoistic, virtually all companies that maximize pleasure run on calculations.

Blue Bell is one of these, and the initial response to the evidence of listeria was guarded; it was targeted to head off the harm without unnecessarily disrupting operations. It was the rational response of a pleasure maximizing entity. But there was a point where Blue Bell’s role changed, since they were effectively put in a position where they were the only party that effectively could prevent harm. The question at that point is, “Will the corporation shift its point of view and assume its overriding duty to prevent harm to consumers?” More precisely, will the people who run the company assume that overriding duty and bear the costs that go with it?

When companies make decisions like Blue Bell did, people will still say that companies are calculators, and that they pull their product to avoid lawsuits. While this is potentially true, it is hardly a criticism to say that people are rational. When the calculation aligns with the overriding duty, the decision is an easy one.

Had it reached that point at Blue Bell? No one can say for sure. But since there is obviously no motive to harm consumers, and management progressed rather quickly from a broad partial recall to a total recall, the decision looks to be one of willingly assuming that overriding duty rather than risking further harm to consumers. Blue Bell changed its role from pleasure maximizer to harm minimizer.

There are other duties that Blue Bell needs to fulfill in order to prevent future harm, and their press releases indicate that they are aware of those. I would imagine that systems put in place in the next six months will be markedly different than the ones that have been there for decades. Until these are completed, the public will be wary.

But doing this well will allow Blue Bell to return to doing what it does best—maximizing pleasure. And that includes providing milk shakes for all those Texans who wander home and remember why it is they love this place.

Keep an open mind on your career journey. That’s just one piece of advice Frito-Lay’s Laura Maxwell offered Business Honors students. She serves as the senior vice president of the Transformation Integration Office at Frito-Lay, and executive sponsor of their Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN).

After Maxwell recently took time away from her busy schedule to visit with students at Mays Business School, they said they appreciated her candor and thoughts on preparing for a career after business school.

Angela Lowak ’16, a junior Business Honors major, said Maxwell’s talk was the best professional development event she has attended. Lowak said it helped her make some decisions about her own career path. “I have been debating between finance and supply chain, and after listening to her I concluded supply chain was the best route for me,” she said. “Most importantly, I learned that if I make the wrong decision, it isn’t the end of the world. I just need to be adaptive and eager. I also learned the importance of evaluating each year individually. In fact, I need to do a better job of focusing on the short-term goals rather than basing everything off of the long term.”

Maxwell’s background includes engineering and supply chain, and now, she has transitioned into more of a business management role. Her current responsibilities include the development and leadership of all business transformation activities and she works closely with external partners to develop new strategies and manage business implementations.

Maxwell’s career with parent company PepsiCo has spanned 25 years so far. Most recently she led the Supply Chain Growth and Commercialization team, where she was responsible for Product Supply, Service to Sales, Asset Strategy, Economic Development and Supply Chain capability to support Customer Growth.  She began her PepsiCo career as an Operations Resource and spent 17 years in field manufacturing roles prior to coming to Frito-Lay’s headquarters in Plano. Her previous roles include Director of Manufacturing, Senior Director Supply Chain and VP Marketing Services.

Her connection to WIN as the executive sponsor is a welcome activity she says illustrates the company’s culture. “It is a great company and a fun company,” Maxwell explains.  “We make Mountain Dew and Doritos – products people know and love.” She advised the students to find an activity or area of their jobs that they enjoy and are passionate about.

Maxwell lives in Plano with her husband, Marty, and two daughters, Maddy (19) and Molly (16). She has relocated several times for her work, and encouraged the students to think about whether relocation is an option in advance of being asked to move.  “When considering a job, consider whether or not you are willing to move for that company,” she said. “Have that conversation before it becomes a hard conversation.”

She also advised asking questions during the interview such as, “Hypothetically, where could I be in four years?” and to understand the company’s culture as deeply as possible.

Sarah Solcher ’15, a senior Business Honors and management major, said she considered Maxwell informative, candid and insightful. “She had great wisdom about navigating corporate life with personality, professionalism and passion,” she said. “She encouraged success in the traditional workforce, but also challenged us in that success may be found in taking a road less traveled.”

Michael Formella ’18, a freshman Business Honors major, called Maxwell “an impressive, distinguished executive who was very professional yet casual and down-to-earth all the same.”

“Her easy-going speaking style and simple presentation were straightforward and easy to obtain valuable information from, and not only just advice for business, but also for life,” he said. “In fact, Ms. Maxwell gave advice to ‘not worry so much about your first job,’ as she had a degree in engineering before joining Frito-Lay and working her way up.”

He cited three pieces of advice Maxwell offered:

• Choose one thing besides school or work that you enjoy doing and, do it;
• Surround yourself with positive people;
• Know that there will probably be a curveball. Plan for it.

“In life, you never know what to expect,” Formella explained, “but with these three things in mind, Ms. Maxwell explained that you will be happy and content with your professional life, and your personal life will follow suit.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Friends, family, colleagues and students surrounded Leonard Berry, a University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, when he was given Mays Business School’s second Lifetime Achievement Award for Research and Scholarship.

During the recognition program, Interim Dean Ricky Griffin presented Berry with a plaque recognizing his “sustained and outstanding scholarly contributions at the highest standards of achievement in innovation and achievement in scholarship.” The Lifetime Achievement Award has a rigorous selection process beginning with faculty nominations. The Mays Research Council and the Mays Executive Committee then reviewed nominees and made their recommendations to Griffin, who confirmed Berry’s selection.

“There is no award more special than one that comes from your peers and one that comes from those who know you best,” Berry said before beginning his talk, “Learning to Write, Writing to Learn, and Other Lessons from an Academic Life.”

Berry joined the Texas A&M University marketing department January of 1982 and said he considers it his “perfect academic home.” He emphasized the importance of teaming up with the right people who share similar values, a strong work ethic and a strong love for service marketing.

Berry founded the Center for Retailing Studies and served as its director through 2000. He is the University Distinguished Professor of marketing, a Regents professor, the M.B. Zale chair in retailing and marketing leadership and the presidential professor for teaching excellence. He has received Texas A&M’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Research twice (1996 and 2008) and the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching in 1990.

“I’ve been here 33 years and have worked with five deans, including Ricky Griffin,” he said. “And our next dean, Eli Jones, was my student. That shows you how things come full circle.”

In 2001, Berry embarked on a new journey into the world of healthcare, serving as a visiting scientist at Mayo Clinic to conduct an in-depth research study of healthcare service. He said he went in with three main goals: to improve the patient experience, to improve health and to limit waste. His research culminated in a book he co-wrote, “Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic: Inside One of the World’s Most Admired Service Organizations.”

Now Berry is ascending to what he believes is the toughest stretch of his career, as he studies cancer service and works to improve the patient experience. He said dozens of interviews with patients, caregivers and health professionals have taught him that a cancer diagnosis is an emotional as well as a physical one.

“Healthcare is a tough and complex area, but what an opportunity I have ­- to champion for the consumer,” Berry said. “I am no longer a rookie. I can do good. I can feel it in my bones.”

Berry concluded his speech by offering three lessons he has learned in his academic life: Find your passion, work on important problems and persevere. “I’ve got the word ‘Perseverance’ on a sticky note at the bottom of my computer monitor at home,” he said. “It’s been there for years. It is a great reminder, and it urges me to keep going.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Business Honors major Angela Lowak has left no stone unturned during her exploration of the Texas A&M University experience. In addition to serving as the volleyball co-captain, the Phi Beta Phi philanthropy chair and public relations chair of the Student Athlete Advisory committee, she is pursuing undergraduate degrees in Business Honors and Supply Chain Management while also planning her pre-requisites for the pre-med route. As the youngest of five children, Lowak jokes that her vast array of interests stem from having “youngest child syndrome” and wanting to experience everything life has to offer.

While growing up in New Braunfels, Texas, volleyball was the popular sport and for Lowak, who measures in at about 6 feet tall, it seemed like the obvious choice. When college recruiters began showing interest in her sophomore year of high school, going to a competitive out-of-state school was the main goal until it was suggested to her that she visit one Texas campus: Texas A&M University.

“I was immediately blown away by the unity of people and the welcoming atmosphere,” Lowak said. “Texas A&M had the perfect combination of competitive athletics and strong academics. I would be surrounded by staff and students encouraging me to reach my highest potential.”

Now a junior at Texas A&M, Lowak is utilizing her natural talents and the skills she has developed on the court and in the classroom to achieve her goals.

“I have figured out what type of leader I am. This discovery was made through real-life applications on the volleyball team,” she said. “In class, I would learn about different approaches leaders take or how to communicate with a team, and then immediately after class, apply the different techniques at practice. I learned that authenticity in leadership style is key and that my character is what’s going to help me succeed beyond my expectations and most importantly, leave me the happiest.”

Lowak also takes the opportunity to demonstrate her character on a global scale by teaching Bible lessons in Swaziland, Africa, volunteering in orthopedic and rehabilitation hospitals in Ho Chi Minh and collaborating with students from all over the world in the 2014 Global Enterprise Experience to create a business solution to a significant global challenge.

Though she does not know where her academic journey will ultimately take her, she is excited about the prospect of adventure and grateful that Texas A&M has allowed her the opportunity to explore her passions and wide variety of interests with the resources that few universities can offer.

“Mays has taught me to make more decisions based off of my short-term goals,” she said. “I can’t be afraid to take a risk and travel the road less traveled. Pursuing business and medicine is sometimes scary, as the two doors are very different from each other and I can’t see the two roads intersecting. However, both doors are open, which means I will continue to move forward until a door is closed or the two paths intersect.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Craig R. McMahen ’89 helped found the Aggies on Wall Street program, and now he has provided a way to expand the program with sponsorships for students.

He has committed $50,000 to establish the Craig R. McMahen ’89 Aggies on Wall Street Endowment Fund, which will be used to support students participating in the program and helpf und other programmatic needs. McMahen also donated $50,000 to the previously established Craig R. McMahen ’89 Fund for Excellence in Teaching and Research in Finance.

Aggies on Wall Street is a program designed for top students that want to compete at the highest levels in finance. A committee hand selects 20 students every year to travel to New York City for two weeks and meet with approximately 20-30 different financial companies, usually hosted by Aggie alumni. This experience introduces students to individual companies and different industries including investment banking, private equity, trading, hedge funds and equity research. Additionally, it gives young Aggies a network on Wall Street, historically reserved for Ivy League schools.

“Finance Professor and Department Head Sorin Sorescu and former Mays Dean Jerry Strawser got behind several of us and had the vision and persistence to grow the program into what it is today,” McMahen said. “As a result of the continued success of Aggies on Wall Street, many students are working in New York or other cities in these highly competitive fields. It is also great visibility for Mays, as these jobs are some of the highest paying coming out of undergraduate programs.

Since New York is still the financial hub of the world, McMahen said he and the others “want Mays students to get out of Texas and give them exposure to that world where you can work with and compete against the top financial minds from schools including Harvard, Stanford and NYU, amongst others.”

“It’s great visibility for the university and a benefit for the companies, because these are the top students,” he said. “It’s also a great first step for the students because they have connections for job interviews and summer internships.”

Interim Dean Ricky Griffin said McMahen’s gift is beneficial to Mays students. “Given the central role that New York plays in both our domestic and global financial markets it is critical that students have the opportunity to spend time there and begin to form professional networks,” he said. “Aggies on Wall Street plays a major role for us and we are sincerely thankful that Craig McMahen supports this program and is so dedicated to helping our students.”

McMahen is a long-time partner with Mays and was recognized in 2012 with a Mays Outstanding Alumni Award. He became attracted to Wall Street during a summer internship in New York in 1988 where he worked in an equity research department of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, an investment bank, and on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. After graduation, he joined KBW’s investment banking department where he worked for 23 years. In 2012, he opened a satellite office in Austin where he is a Managing Director of Investment Banking and Head of the Southwestern U.S. for the commercial banking industry.

He said his goal in providing the Mays fund for excellence is to aid the department head of finance in recruiting and rewarding faculty members. “In my business, the top performers are rewarded with bonuses and I wanted to give Dr. Sorescu a tool to reward the top instructors so they can continue high-level teaching and research,” McMahen said.

McMahen said he wants the paths for current students to be more smooth than when he went to New York City in 1989 to begin his career. “There was only myself and some other young bankers there who were Aggies,” he said. “We have tried to grow the number of Aggies intentionally. We want to help Aggies learn firsthand of the opportunities there are in New York.

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Passionate about the importance of education, Gina and Anthony Bahr ’91 contributed $550,000 to support the teaching, research and professional development activities of Mays Business School faculty members.

Anthony Bahr, CEO of WildHorse Resources Management Company in Houston, said he and his wife are grateful beneficiaries of the talents of teachers who have a passion for education. “We want to encourage and support that same passion in others,” he explained.

The gift is separate and in addition to a $100,000 gift WildHorse Resources committed in 2013 for a Business Honors scholarship fund. WildHorse is a private oil and gas production company with operations in Texas and Louisiana.

“Harvey Firestone once said, ‘The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership,’” he said. “Texas A&M and Mays Business School each have a well-deserved reputation for developing the leaders of tomorrow, and we are glad for the opportunity to support outstanding faculty who are leaders in both research and the classroom.”

Bahr is a two-time Aggie 100 honoree and serves on the Dean’s Development Council at Mays. He received both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Texas A&M University in petroleum engineering. He also received an MBA from California State University Bakersfield.

The first recipient of a Bahr Professorship is management Professor Lorraine Eden. She was recognized for her dedication to the university and its students. She currently demonstrates her commitment to higher education by participating in the World Economic Forum and will serve as an expert in the E15 Initiative Investment Policy Task Force, which seeks to propose new rules for the international trade and investment.

In addition, this semester she is mentoring 17 students and created an in-depth profile book aimed at finding each student top internships and career opportunities. She has helped place more than 70 Aggies in transfer pricing careers, and more than 170 current and former students participate in her closed LinkedIn group, Transfer Pricing Aggies. She also encourages her students to actively participate in meetings with the American Bar Association by presenting in hour-long panels, transfer-pricing cases they had analyzed while taking her class.

Mays Interim Dean Ricky Griffin said the professorship will help the school achieve its mission of developing its students into ethical leaders for a global society. “It is critical that we support the research and teaching work of our top faculty,” he said. “We are very appreciative that Gina and Anthony Bahr have provided the gift of an endowed professorship to help us continue to move forward.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

‘Jon (Sean) Jasperson has been appointed to serve as academic director of the new Master of Science in Business (MS-BIZ) https://mays.tamu.edu/msbusiness/  program starting June 1.

He served on the planning committee this past year for the Master of Science in Business, an intensive 10-month program that prepares students to enter the workforce with core business knowledge, solid quantitative skills and a basic understanding of best leadership practices. The MS-BIZ program will begin in the fall of 2016.

In his new role, Jasperson will report to Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Mary Lea McAnally, who said his skills and strategic outlook proved to be a perfect match for the MS-BIZ leadership role. Jasperson will also continue to be a member of the faculty in the Department of Information and Operations Management. He has been at Mays since 2005.

Mike Shaw ’68 has parlayed his motto – “When the sun comes up, I’m up” – to achieve financial and personal success in the auto industry. He owns and operates six car dealerships in three states, and he has garnered numerous awards, including TIME Magazine’s national “Dealer of the Year” in 2012 – which he called the Heisman Trophy of car dealers – and Automotive News’ “Dealer of Distinction” in 2013.

Shaw shared business tactics and stories when he spoke to Business Honors students at Mays Business School. He said he learned his work ethic at Texas A&M University – in the Corps of Cadets and with jobs selling donuts in dorms, selling newspaper subscriptions and running a pizza parlor. For the first 10 years of his career, he worked 12 to 15 hours a day.

His first dealership failed and he said he “lost everything except my ethics.” He repaid his debts and kept working to build his empire, paying cash for every dealership with no guarantees or cross collateralization.

“Spoken like a true entrepreneur, his ‘never give up’ attitude has translated into both financial and personal success,” observed Erika Arthur ’15, a senior Business Honors and accounting major who was at the breakfast meeting. “However, his success did not come without valuable lessons learned. These lessons highlighted the value of business ethics and doing the right thing, maintaining a consistent business philosophy and appreciating the benefit of human resource differentiation. Both new and seasoned Business Honor students can apply Shaw’s wisdom as we move about our respective pursuits in life.”

Shaw said he runs his business similarly to a football team. “It’s about business and process. We map out our strategies, then go execute them,” he said. “If you give me a good attitude, enthusiasm and hard work, you’ll have a place on my team. And sometimes a player doesn’t work out and you need a quarterback change.”

Alin Piranian ’16, a junior Business Honors and finance major, said Shaw’s presentation was “less abstract and cheesy than what most people say about work-life balance.” Piranian said Shaw’s advice “was more realistic, which is more applicable.”

“Mr. Shaw claimed that when it came to work, the more hours he put in the ‘luckier’ he got,” Piranian said. “He mentioned that in whatever field you’re in, the number one thing is people. When it came to family and work-life balance, Mr. Shaw claimed that some things would have to be sacrificed, and to him it was his hobbies.”

Shaw said he maintained strong family ties because he made it a priority. He ate dinner at home every night, then returned to work or worked from home. “I made every family conference, soccer games – everything. But I didn’t golf or go hunting or things like that,” he said. “I was at home or at work. I lived my priorities.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL
Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,600 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Finding a job, career building, working with a mentor and work-life balance were the key topics at the 16th annual Women in Information Technology Conference, held March 6. The Center for the Management of Information Systems and Women in IT hosted current and former female MIS students.

The Women in IT (WIT) conference is an event for women to network and learn from other women who are currently building their careers in IT. Topics typically include lessons learned from senior executives, managers, professionals, and newly hired women in the workforce on topics such as finding a job, career building, finding a mentor and work-life balance. The theme of this year’s conference was On The Heels of Success.

The event incorporated a wide range of successful female speakers, including Sue Redman, an executive professor for the accounting department at Mays Business School and co-founder of the TAMU Women’s Former Student Network, who spoke on the history of women at Texas A&M University. After Redman spoke, Debra Casillas of USAA talked about cybersecurity; Maggie Malek, digital public relations director from MMI Agency, talked about “Your Social Media Brand;” and Lisa Burton, career coordinator of the Undergraduate Special Programs at Texas A&M speaking on “Rock Your Resume.”

In addition, roundtable sessions for industry and student participants included topics of balancing leadership and life as well as networking tips and techniques. The event concluded with an etiquette luncheon catered through the Memorial Student Center and hosted by Randi Mays Knapp, a certified etiquette and leadership coach. For attendees, headshot photos were provided through the TAMU Photography Club, and door prizes and gift cards were awarded during the day. Prize sponsors included CC Creations, the Center for the Management of Information Systems, David Gardner’s Jewelers, Merge Boutique and Pine Boutique.

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL?

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.

Senior business management major Blake Goldberg does not fear the unknown.

In the fall of his senior year, he purchased a one-way ticket to New Zealand to volunteer for an organization called World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) beginning July 2015 after graduating from Texas A&M University in May. Once there, he will work on a farm for more than four hours a day in exchange for room and board in the hopes of gaining the real-world experience required to join the Peace Corps.

Since joining the Peace Corps was no longer an option immediately after graduation due to strict requirements, Goldberg devised a new plan of action.

“I was devastated and knew I had to make a big decision in life,” he said. “Was I going to float my way into the corporate world, get a well-paying job and forget about my dream, or was I going to swim to my goal of doing the unorthodox and try to do something to better my chances of joining the Peace Corps?”

WWOOF is a network in which the organization facilitates the placement of volunteers on organic farms. The network reaches 99 countries and aims to promote cultural and educational experiences based on trust and non-monetary exchange, helping build a sustainable global community. Goldberg embarked on the project by starting to sell his belongings right away in anticipation of his move to New Zealand. He will spend the months of July and August with his first host family.

“When I heard this I thought it was perfect,” Goldberg said. “I can gain great agricultural experience that will help for the Peace Corps, and it’s just an unknown adventure.”

While his sights were always set on joining the Peace Corps, in 2013 Goldberg rushed his transcript to Texas A&M at the last moment and was accepted to Mays Business School. Growing up, Goldberg was told that what he majored in would not matter five years after he graduated college. Determined to choose a major that did not have an expiration date, he decided on business management.

“Mays Business management is all about leadership,” he said. “I thought in my mind, no matter what I do, no matter what job I have I will always need leadership. I had my sights dead set on that. Just like the Peace Corps, I was determined to graduate with a management degree.”

During his time at Texas A&M, Goldberg continued to lead a life full of adventure by working at Good Bull Pedi Cabs, giving rides around Northgate; studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain; and hitchhiking down I-10 to California his sophomore year, spending the entire summer traveling solo. Though he has always had a sense of wanderlust, he credits Mays Business School for encouraging his passions.

“When I am out in the real world and working on some farm in the middle of New Zealand, or volunteering in the Peace Corps, it is only going to be me out there. That is what Mays Business School prepared me for,” Goldberg said. “They taught me how to be my own leader. I am confident the skills and lessons I have learned from all my professors and classmates at A&M will give me the necessary infrastructure to allow me to succeed in all aspects of my life.”

Once in New Zealand, Goldberg plans to re-apply to the Peace Corps to live out his dreams on his own terms.

“It seems my ADD goals are changing every day, but the main thing is I do not want them to tell me I can’t do it,” he said. “I want to get accepted, then if I don’t want to do it, I will be the one that makes that decision. It’s something that I am just really determined to do.”

ABOUT MAYS BUSINESS SCHOOL

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,900 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.